The Olsen Update

Today is Alana's 2nd "Diaversary".  I'm so proud of her and how far we have come. I remember sitting in the ICU with my 6 year old, who was dying before my eyes.  She was weak and not there.  Alana was so brave.  She saw the pain  in my eyes and would tell me that she was going to be Okay. Jen (Alana's first DIAbuddy) and Wendy where the first people I called. I know they came into our lives when they did for a reason.  With out them I may have fallen apart. It seemed like a whirl-wind. Dr.s, nurses, educators.  I felt like I was in a dream land.  There's no way that this was happening to my child. She was perfect.  After four days in the ICU we were left to medically care for someone who's life now relied so heavily on us and insulin.  Alana was thrilled to go home.  I on the other hand was scared to death.  As we drove away from the hospital, I half wanted to turn back. As I look back at these events, I think ...

I've had a few people ask me what I want for my birthday and rather than responding to these messages one by one, I think I'll post it here for all to see.  What do I want? I want a cure for Type 1 Diabetes. I know that seems to be an odd thing to ask for. Maybe unreasonable, but even my little Alana asked for it for Christmas last year. I want my daughter to have the childhood that she once had. I want her to be free from finger pricks, site changes and getting her insu lin pump tubing stuck on door knobs. I want her to be able to pushed into the pool by her friends (with out the worries that it will kill her pump). I want her to be able to eat carbs with out counting them and indulge in chocolate and ice cream with out an injection or fear that her blood sugar will be high.  This is my simple birthday wish. Please donate to JDRF and type one diabetes research. Help us find that cure. Even if its a dollar. Every cent counts. Thanks. ♥

While at fundraising event for our Walk to Cure team, I was asked the same question several times.       So who's Alana? After pointing her out their response to her was... But you don't look sick. How many times do you look at a person with a handicap permit and say... They don't need that.   They look fine. I'll admit.  I've shamefully said it before.  So many of us look at people with a disease or disability as if it's something you have to see for it to be real. If you don't see Alana's insulin pump or see her check her blood sugar, you might not realize she has a disease at all.  She's a pretty healthy kid, diabetes aside. She rides her bike, swims, climbs the monkey bars and gets good grades. But we're that family.  The one who's counting every single carb that enters Alana's body.  Always referring to our Calorie King app for the right numbers.  We're that family who dreads pizza night because we know that it make...

Some days like today, I wonder what my true calling in life is. When you have a love for one thing...  The thing that has devoured your life since your youth.  Then this new thing... something totally out of left field hits you and you begin to question yourself. Was my passion just a passion? Is this NEW THING your life's calling? It has been waiting to hit you like a ton of bricks. You just didn't know it.         ... and then it lands on you like the anvil from the Wile E Coyote cartoons. I'm really not sure what's bringing this all on right now.  There's a little flame in my head that's burning away at me. Call it Mothers Intuition... I'm not sure. Maybe I'm waiting to see what happens.  There are several things just UP IN THE AIR right now... Time will tell. I'm living in limbo... or maybe on the TV show LOST.  There's this smoky monster called DIABETES lurking around the corner and in a flash....It's eaten up an...

I know a lot of people have been waiting to hear from me since yesterday.  To be honest  I'm not  sure what I'm supposed to think at this point. To lighten the mood.  Here's a pic of Ariana in what she wore to the DR. appointment. It went a little like this... Dr. Riley sat Ariana and I down.  He gave her a look over and looked at her charts and results from the test done by  Dr. Sim. He then quickly jumped in telling me about the different studies he had worked on for over thirty years. Two of which was geared towards us. The first was a study where they tested siblings of T1D patients for the markers of T1D.  Those who had the markers (classified as T1D Dysglycemic) would be tracked by the Doctors to see what happened with their blood sugar leading up to going "full blown".  What they found was, in the weeks, months or even years before they were full blown, their Blood Sugar would do this little ...

This morning I got a call from the nurse (Rosie) in our pediatrician's office. She told me that Ariana's test results are back and everything looked "Normal", but that it seemed that Ariana was dehydrated.  Rosie then wend on to tell me that they sent on the results to our Endocrinologist and that they would take care of things from there. But if everything is ok, why are they sending her to the Endo? Then I sent a text to our Diabetic Educator (Nannette) to verify the info had been sent. She had received it and told me to make an appointment for "Hyperglycemia". WHAT? Nannette told me that they would do more blood work and dive deeper into this. Tomorrow I'll be taking Ariana to the Endo, which is totally weird to me.  Dr. Riley has been Alana's zone.  Now my girls will share this.  Maybe.  I guess nothing is written in stone yet. So now what? I get to sit for over ...

I just feel for her right now.  The poor thing is having her first migraine. JUST MISERABLE.   I put her in a dark room, gave her some medicine and covered her eyes with her blanket. It really seemed to calm her down.  Just like her Momma. Only I get several a month.  It puts me out of commission.  Chris used to get them when he was a kid too.  Alana started getting them before her diagnoses with type 1 diabetes.  I'm hoping this is not another sign...

I got the sweetest email that was being sent around my Granny's church.  We feel so blessed to have people all around the world praying for our girls.  From the bottom of my heart, I thank each and everyone of you. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here's her message... --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And he [Jesus] took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them. Mark 10:16 I have 3 great granddaughters. They are sisters. The oldest was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes last year at age 6. Now her two younger sisters ages 5 and 2 are having the same symptoms for Type 1 Diabetes. Please pray for these precious little girls that these tests will be negative for T1D. The family would appreciate your prayers. This little family are believers and the oldest said prayers at dinner the o...

After yesterday's testing, Ariana wanted to wear her favorite color to school.  Can you tell what it is? It's so weird that I'm bloging about Ariana and Amelia on Alana's blog.  I hope this doesn't become habit. Ariana's Morning fasting BG: 124 Amelia's Morning fasting BG: 108 Still waiting for test results. What the heck is causing them to flux?

After all of this weekend's events with the girls.  I feel calm.  Slightly stressed.  But calm.  Ky White (a very dear family friend) came and gave Ariana a blessing tonight and I got that "All is well" feeling.   No matter what happens we'll make it through.   Type 1 diabetes is a scary beast.  But I have faith that the Lord knows what burdens we can take on. My heart is heavy with the love and support our friends, family, Dia-buddies and even my clients at Kat's Photography  have shared.  It is the most sincere prayer that Ariana and Amelia will be diabetes free their entire lives.

FACT. I'm sure this will ramble a bit but I have a lot on my mind I need to get off my chest.  Lets start this story off at last week. FRIDAY: My 2 year old Amelia was showing a few signs of T1D.  The most important being that she was going to the bathroom a lot.  So I checked her blood sugar and it was 134. Mind you, to this point we have checked her sugars were always under 100.  So we decided we'd call the Dr. and take her in.  A urinalysis was done and everything checked out with no sugar spilling into her urine  The Dr. wanted to do a blood panel on her as well but it had to be fasting.  Plans were to go in on Monday for LAB work. SATURDAY: Morning blood sugar on Amelia 119. SUNDAY: Amelia's morning blood sugar 94. Normal.  We went to church and I started to notice something strange going on with Ariana (our soon to be 5 year old).  She was very sleepy in her primary class and even fe...

One of the hardest parts of being a Type 1 Diabetic is the hormones involved.  Today was a tough day for my Sweet Alana.  She woke up kind of off, and stayed that way.  We had a site change this morning for her CGM (Continuous Blood Glucose Monitor) and we taught Daddy how to do it since he hasn't gone through the training yet.  I drove her to school and dropped her off in the office.  She seemed fine at that point.  So I went off to my meeting for room moms.  About a hour later I got a call from the school nurse.  Alana was in her office. In TEARS. No real reason. Her blood sugar was stable. Just emotional.  So I left the meeting to go see my princess.  Her eyes were red.  Suddenly I had my 7 year old glued to me. I tried to calm her down but all she wanted was for me to hold her. There we sat till I thought she was calm again.  It was hard. I wanted to just pick up her things and take her home and snuggle with her all ...

Today is Alana's 4 month "Diaversary".  I'm just amazed with how far she has come.  The reality of her diagnosis is second nature.  We're at the point in her adjustment that we are now looking into getting an Insulin pump and CGMs.  Our next Endocrinologist appointment will be the true tail. Will our insurance fight us?  I'm sure of it. Alana's blood sugar is stable (for the most part).  She never goes hi and if anything has more problems with it dropping at random times.  The lowest so far being 44.  Scary!  I think the CGMs will be very helpful for those lows.  I recently watched a video on YouTube about a family who lost a daughter in the middle of the night.  She had an extreme low and went into a coma. In the morning, her mother found her.  She was gone. Where they live, CGMs are not available.  It would have saved her life.  I talked to this mom on a group page on Facebook.  She is an amazing woman. I ...

 I was reading one of my favorite diabetes blogs when I found this great recipe.  The kids love it and it was easy to make. Ingredients: 6 eggs 1/2 c ground meat or bacon bits (I used the bacon bits!) 1/2 c diced green bell peppers 1/8 c mayonaise 1/8 c water salt and pepper to taste Prep: Preheat your oven to 350F Grease 6 muffin tins with cooking spray, or coconut oil Beat the eggs and add the ground meat, bell peppers, water, mayonnaise and season with salt and or pepper.  Combine well. Scoop equal portions into the 6 muffin tins  Bake for about 18 minutes or until a knife inserted into the muffins comes out clean Remove from the oven, let cool and dive in! Enjoy!

In the last month we have found ourselves reading a lot of labels.  Going to the grocery store takes twice as long as it used to.  Especially if Alana is with me. Here's Alana totally bummed out at the candy isle. (gnarly cell phone pic) I wanted to show a side by side comparison and see what you think. So here it is.  Regular Barbecue Lays and Baked Barbecue Lays. Which would you think was better for Type 1 Diabetics?  I was pretty surprised.  It wasn't the Baked. I'll say that right away.   The regular (left) give us 15 chips at 15g of carbs.  The baked (right) gives you 14 chips at 22g.  That doesn't seem like much to the normal person but 7g is 7g.  We are trying so hard to keep to her diet plan. But some days I find it hard.  I'd love to give her a huge candy bar with out a shot. But can't (unless of course she's low the go for it) The lesson here is that not all things are as they seem.  Another exa...

This seems to be the way that we learn now a days. Sad to say but it's true.  We've got to see what works best for Alana.  What works for someone else may not for her.  So far most of the advice we've received has been extremely helpful.  In other cases... um... not so much.  One of my favorites...

... Luckily her blood sugar was low so it didn't have any ill  effect on her. I guess we failed to put her snack in her back  pack this morning. When snack time rolled around she didn't have anything to eat so the sub gave her what everyone else had. Thank goodness it was only 10g and that she was low.   I think I'm going to put a sticky note on Alana's forehead...  "don't give me Food without checking with the nurse or my  parents." Two times in one month. Sheesh!